Following that run, which won the 2010 Elliot Norton Award for Best Theatrical Experience, Punchdrunk collaborated with Emursive to rework the production and mount it in New York. The show then went up in Boston in 2009 as a co-production with the American Repertory Theater, a company known for producing lots of New York- and Broadway-bound shows. This is just a legend, though, to enhance the world of the show in reality, the McKittrick was once a group of warehouses that were redecorated to look like an old hotel and converted into a performance space.īefore coming to Manhattan, Sleep No More had its world premiere in 2003 in London, where Punchdrunk is based. The venue itself is named after the hotel from Hitchcock's Vertigo, and the name of its in-house bar, the Manderley Bar, is pulled from his film Rebecca.Īs Punchdrunk and Emursive, the immersive theatre companies that co-created and produced Sleep No More, state on the show's own website, the McKittrick was a 1930s luxury hotel that ended up shuttered just before its planned opening, and was left unused until they brought Sleep No More there. There are some references to the Paisley witch trials that took place in 1697 Scotland, and the design is inspired by film noir (actors dress in 1930s period costume) and Alfred Hitchcock's work.

Past guests have included Sara Bareilles, Neil Patrick Harris, and Emma Stone.Īnother way Sleep No More differs from a traditional Macbeth is that this version incorporates diverse historical influences. You might also spot a celebrity, as famous actors make guest appearances from time to time. And while you're walking around, the actors are, too, so you can follow them and discover even more secret locales - though they might take you there themselves first. There's little dialogue, though the scenes are reenacted with movement.

Audience members are given masks and then left to wander among the floors of the hotel at their own pace, encountering different scenes from the show throughout. Sleep No More is a show that reimagines Shakespeare's Macbeth as a walkthrough experience in Manhattan's McKittrick Hotel. Get Sleep No More tickets on New York Theatre Guide. The award-winning immersive experience Sleep No More has been going strong in New York since 2011.

Sleep no more